homeaway

HomeAway is looking to block legislation designed to make short-term rentals legal in San Francisco. To do that, the company has filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment against the city, claiming that its new “Airbnb law” violates the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. Read More

The vacation rental marketplace HomeAway is pondering a move into backing startup companies.
As it passes a recent milestone of breaking more than 1 million listings on its service, one of the first online marketplaces to challenge the hotel industry may begin making minority investments in companies that would add value to its service. Read More

Nasdaq-listed vacation rental site HomeAway has acquired a Singapore-based startup Travelmob, allowing it to compete directly with Airbnb in the Asia-Pacific region.
HomeAway announced today that it acquired a majority stake of 63 percent in Travelmob in an undisclosed, all-cash deal. For now, Travelmob’s team of 16 will continue to operate as an independent brand out of… Read More

Travel search engine Kayak has is announcing a new board member today—HomeAway Founder and CEO Brian Sharples. He joins fellow Kayak board members Michael Moritz, Joel Cutler, Terrell Jones, Hendrik Nelis, and Gregory Stanger
Sharples co-founded vacation rentals giant HomeAway in February 2005 and helped lead the company to a public offering in June 2011. Prior to HomeAway, he was… Read More

Vacation homes sit empty most of the year, representing a huge amount of untapped inventory waiting to be discovered online. Large services such as HomeAway, VRBO, and TripAdvisor’s FlipKey are taking advantage of this market opportunity, but for many vacation homeowners managing their listings online is still too much of a hassle. They end up handing over the keys to local rental… Read More

Newly public home rental service HomeAway is reporting third quarter earnings today, posting a 37 percent increase in revenue to $61.1 millon from $44.6 million in the third quarter of 2010. The company said revenue increase was attributed to a strength in renewal rates and increased revenue per listing from the prior year.
Unfortunately, the company posted a loss this quarter of $4.1 million… Read More

Newly public home rental service HomeAway is reporting second quarter earnings today, posting a 40.9 percent revenue growth, to $58.7 million in the second quarter, compared to $41.6 million in the second quarter of 2010. The company said growth was buoyed by renewal rates, coupled with increases in new listings and revenue per listing.
Net income for the quarter was $2.2 million compared to… Read More

One of my favorite recent blog posts is Seth Godin’s “Getting funded is not the same as succeeding.” Whether or not we’re in a bubble, it’s a sign of the times that this post has to be written in the first place. As Josh Elman tweets, we’ve gone from RIP Good Times to funding a grilled cheese company in less than three years (Sequoia was involved in… Read More

Bubble or not, 2011 may go down as the year of the tech IPO. Not since the last bubble have we seen so many technology companies clamoring to go public. And halfway through the year, we still have many more companies who will be listing on either the NASDAQ or the NYSE in the next six months. Here’s a roundup of the tech companies that have gone public, where they are trading now, and who… Read More

Vacation home rental service HomeAway has begun trading on the NASDAQ this morning under the symbol ‘AWAY’, with the shares trading as high as $37.10. giving the company a market cap of $3 billion. That’s an increase of 39 percent, up from the company’s initial pricing of $27 per share last night.
HomeAway, which filed for an IPO in March, raised $216 million in the… Read More

Vacation home rental service HomeAway has priced its IPO, which is set to begin trading tomorrow morning at $27 per share, giving the company a valuation of $2 billion. The company aims to raise as much as $248 million in the offering.
Last week, HomeAway priced the range of its offering between $24 and $27 per share, so this final pricing is at the high end of the range. The… Read More

This is no doubt that this is the year of technology IPOs. Vacation home rental service HomeAway has set the price range of its offering, pricing the range between $24 and $27 per share, valuing the company at a whopping $2 billion. HomeAway aims to raise as much as $248 million in the offering and will list its stock on the NASDAQ under the symbol “AWAY.”
HomeAway, which filed for… Read More

Vacation rentals giant HomeAway has made an acquisition today—social vacation rentals platform Second Porch. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Second Porch, which launched in 2009, helps you find and share vacation rentals through your social circle on Facebook. The site’s Facebook app allows owners create a free property listing that can be broadcast to your Facebook friends. Read More

As it prepares for a public offering, vacation rental giant HomeAway is continuing its aggressive acquisition strategy with the purchase of realholidays.com.au, the Australian vacation rental brand of REA Group Limited. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition broadens HomeAway’s presence in the Australian market, and into the Asia-Pacific region.Currently HomeAway has… Read More

Vacation home rental service HomeAway has just submitted its S-1 filing with the SEC, indicating that it will file for a public offering in the next few months. The maximum proposed total offering price is $230 million but this could be just a placeholder amount.
HomeAway has raised close to a half a billion dollars in venture funding, and in its most recent investment round was valued at… Read More

Google Ventures has invested in Austin, Texas based HomeAway, a vacation home rental service, at a $1.4 billion valuation, we’ve heard from a source. The New York Times first broke the story, but doesn’t have details on valuation or amount invested.
Our source says Google Ventures invested somewhere around $25 million in the company.
Google Ventures bought stock directly from… Read More

Online vacation rental marketplace operator HomeAway this morning announced that it has agreed to acquire Instant Software, makers of vacation rental management software. With the purchase, HomeAway is able to expand its suite of product offerings for professional vacation rental managers.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but it’s likely material for HomeAway as it will… Read More

HomeAway, the Austin based provider of short-term rental property listings, services for vacation rentals by owner, and search and review tools for travelers debuted its first mobile app today.
An iPhone app, it was developed by Mobiata, the Ann Arbor based creators of FlightTrack and TripDeck (popular travel apps for iPhone, also available on iPad, RIM, Android and Palm devices).
HomeAway… Read More

HomeAway, the massive vacation home rental service rollup, is ramping towards an IPO, likely in 2011, say sources close to the company. And that shouldn’t be any surprise, given the two key executive hires the company announced today – new chief product officer Tom Hale (previously CPO at Linden Labs) and chief operating officer Brent Bellm (previously PayPal, and in need of a… Read More

Travel website operator TripAdvisor, an Expedia company, this morning announced it has acquired Holiday Lettings, credited as being the UK’s largest independent vacation rental website.
The seller is Rightmove, a UK-based property website operator, having sold its majority interest in the holding company of Holiday Lettings to TripAdvisor for an undisclosed sum. Rightmove acquired a… Read More